I am a southern woman, through and through. One of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes is candied yams. I look forward to eating these things all year long. I can honestly say I have a sweet tooth, and these yams truly do taste like candy.
To make them, you only need a few ingredients: butter, brown sugar, and of course, yams. You can even use canned yams if you want to.
First, melt a cup of butter on medium in your saucepan. Next, add two tightly packed cups of brown sugar. Bring it to a boil.
Then, pour your brown sugar and butter mixture over your yams in a 9×12 baking dish. Bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.
Next, eat some delicious candied yams until you feel like you’re going to pop- they’re that good.
I hope you enjoy this recipe! What is your favorite way to cook candied yams?
Last year, we found ourselves scrambling to make Thanksgiving plans amidst a global pandemic. Unable to gather with local family and unable to travel to out of state family, we decided to host our very own Thanksgiving celebration at home for the four of us.
While I am a decent cook, I’m not a chef. I’m far from it. No one at my house is going to go hungry, but I’m not used to cooking large holiday feasts.
Dinner turned out well, and it tasted great, but there are still a few things I would like to share to make your life easier.
1. Plan ahead!
Do as much as you can ahead of time. Plan your meal in advance. Make your shopping list early and buy the ingredients a week in advance- that way, you have plenty of time to make changes or pick up additional ingredients. If there are any dishes you can make a day early, do it. Save yourself some time and last minute planning.
2. Not everything has to be made from scratch.
Not everything tastes good premade but you can get away with using some canned or premade goods. Why not save yourself some time by using frozen yeast rolls or canned yams? If it works for you, and your family is happy, why does it matter?
3. Make sure you have extra cookware on hand
Most of us don’t typically use three or four pots at once to cook dinner, so a lot of us don’t have that many pots. Try to calculate when you will be cooking what so you can ensure you have enough pots before you get started. This way, you can borrow or purchase extras in advance.
4. Research unfamiliarrecipes
Never cooked a turkey before? No problem! Just research the recipe that meets your needs! We are a busy family with small, picky children who won’t eat just anything. I searched for a few weeks before I found a turkey recipe I thought everyone in our family would enjoy!
5. And lastly, don’t stress over the small details
Your kids and your family aren’t going to remember whether everything is perfect- they are going to remember how much they enjoyed family dinners with their loved ones. Don’t stress on the small details- remember to relax and have a good time with your family.
I don’t know about you guys, but I can’t wait to get a minute of free time so I can do some fall crafting (whenever THAT happens). I decided to share some of my favorite fall crafts with you all- this weekend, I will share some all new crafts with you.
1. Fall plunger tree
My aunt made this fall tree from a dollar store plunger and some floral picks. I attempted to make one, but hers turned out so much better. Here is the link.
2. Pool noodle wreath
Want to know how you can make this wreath from a pool noodle? You can read all about it here.
I don’t know about you guys, but I absolutely love decorating for fall. We have over a month until Christmas comes and it seems to me that fall decor is getting harder to find in the stores.
Recently, I popped into Michael’s to look at ribbon and was pleasantly surprised by all the fall decor they still had in stock. I thought I’d share some of my favorite finds with you all.
This cute little metal sign was less than $20.
Colorful burlap pumpkins, anyone? Less than $10.
There were a lot of cute fall pillows to choose from. These were less than $20.
These faux pumpkins were by far the most expensive thing I found at $30…but they’re so cute though.
We had it pressure washed and water sealed recently and we haven’t put our porch furniture back on it yet. Currently, it’s a big blank slate.
Prior to pressure washing, our porch looked like this: not bad, but kind of boring.
I’d like to change up the porch a bit, and make it more cozy. I created a mood board to pull all my ideas together.
We already have a rug and chair cushions that I love, but I would love to build this couch and table. I’d also love to swap out our porch railing for vinyl and metal and screen in the porch. I also plan to stain the porch boards and string up some Edison lights.
Of course, this will be done a little at a time. We will keep you updated throughout the process.
